Theres a lot of advice on reloading for T/C accuracy out there. Do this and do that, Im sure youve heard and read a lot of advice. Sometimes you hear an idea, you try it, and it works. Sometimes the opposite is true, you try it, and it doesnt work for whatever reason. Im like you all, I pick up bits and pieces and have for years some good, some not so good.
Heres a tip that will help you almost every time and speaking of time, it takes a little extra, but Ive found it to be worth the trade to get better accuracy, often MUCH better accuracy. Im not a competitive shooter by any means, and there are a lot of people who shoot rings around me, BUT, I have been able to really improve the accuracy of my T/C/s by INDEXING.
What is indexing? It sounds like something done in an office, and it makes the same kind of sense. If you put a file folder in with a group of other files, and youre using the same filing system over and over to get the same results (i.e., being able to find the file anytime you want it in the same place you put it last time), this starts to sound like consistency, doesnt it? Now were getting somewhere. :grin:
Consistency is what reloading is all about where accuracy is concerned. If you have no consistency in your reloading practices, then you arent really sure where your bullets will end up. This isnt good, its not good for punching paper and its not good for making a clean kill afield. In order for most of us to wring the maximum practical accuracy out of our guns, we need a system to follow. Personally, I need a system that takes a lot of guesswork out of my procedures. We need a system that will give us an easier way to have more confidence in our consistency. That system is indexing.
Heres how it works. Its simple, yet initially takes some extra time to mark your cases take the time, reap the benefits, its that simple. Any brass case you can find can be marked in some way. You can use a Sharpie pen (although I find that the marks come off when I tumble my cases), some folks have tried various dyes, but the method I stay with is simply marking the edge of the rim with a small file (Im extra lazy, so I use a Dremel for this task) just enough so you can see the mark you made both when viewing the rim from the side and when viewing the case head from the rear when you insert the case into the chamber. Dont make a mark deep enough to structurally weaken the case, the rim just has to be marked enough to be plainly seen.
Now, how do we use this mark in a manual reloading press? First, make sure you have a way of placing your shellholders for each caliber into the press at the same angle every time you start reloading for that caliber. You can mark the shellholder and match it up with a mark you make on your press with a Sharpie, or, you can make a scribed mark on both the shellholder and the press too your choice (I used the Sharpie for this one). Now you have your shellholder indexed and the rest will be easy. Simply place the index mark on the case rim in the center of the shellholder opening each and every time you perform an operation on that case. This provides you with an extra measure of consistency you werent getting before. If you use manual priming tools like the Lee Priming Tool or similar equipment, do the same thing and place the index mark in the center of the shellholder opening every time you prime the case, this also provides consistency that you werent getting before. When the bullet is seated, I use the index mark in a slightly different way than most folks do. I align the index mark at the left side of the shellholder opening, seat 1/3 of the bullet, rotate the case clockwise 120 degrees or as close to it as I can come to it, seat the second 1/3 of the bullet, then rotate another 120 degrees and seat the final third of the bullet. Ive found that I reduce bullet run-out a lot this way, and you dont have to be exact in the 120 degree part either. It beats buying very expensive straight-line bullet seating dies (for me anyway) and I get about the same results for my purposes. The final use for the index mark is when the bullet is loaded Ive found that the easiest way to align the mark is to center the cases index mark with the middle of the extractor EVERY TIME, NO EXCEPTIONS! Youll be amazed at how helpful indexing is to counteract poorly cut and off-center chambers in case you have one that is not concentric with the bore (there are quite a few like that out there). T/C factory chambers often have a great propensity for not being concentric with the bore, but indexing really helps and can often make a real shooter out of a barrel that would have ended its life as a tent stake. I have a factory Encore barrel in 223 Remington that was saved from this very fate by indexing. It now shoots .4 to .5 five-shot groups as a rule rather than the 1.5 to 2.5 groups it previously shot.
Is indexing a fix-all? No way, but it is another tool in your Contender and Encore reloading arsenal that goes along with other procedures that help provide consistency - proper resizing, case length trimming, uniforming primer pockets, consistently measuring powder charges and deburring flash holes, etc. There is always something else you can do to your cases to make your reloads more consistent, make indexing one of your processes and see a positive difference in your accuracy results.
Safe and good shooting to you.
Javelina
